Retired Capt. Bosko gets $29,000 check

MANSFIELD – Richland County Sheriff's Capt. Eric Bosko, who retired July 31, was to receive his final gross payout check for $29,392.68 on Friday, the Richland County Auditor's Office said.

The auditor's office said Bosko's payout check was cut, as is normal for final payouts, rather than issued by direct deposit. The package containing the check was picked up by the sheriff's office this week.

Bosko is entitled to the following for payout, according to records provided to the auditor's office from Richland County Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon: 181.13 hours of comp time, 2.27 hours of vacation time and 664.14 hours of sick time, for a total of 847.54 hours — times his hourly rate of $34.68.

Bosko was on sick leave March 13 through April 8. He then was off work and paid for mostly vacation time. Bosko had enough accumulated vacation time that he did not have to return to work before his scheduled retirement, officials at the sheriff's office said earlier.

Friday, Erica Hornyak-Spicer, payroll supervisor for the sheriff's office, said comp time and sick time transfers or rolls over from year to year.

She said the sheriff's office keeps track of employees' personal days, rotationary time off days and comp time. The auditor's office keeps track of county employees' vacation and sick days.

She said employees at the sheriff's office earn 4.6 hours of sick time per pay period, based upon hours worked. That carries over from year to year, per policy. There is no maximum accrual.

Vacation time is based on years of service earned per pay period, she said.

Comp time is given to an employee in the department if he or she works over 80 hours and chooses to be compensated at time and a half, she said.

"We internally house comp time, personal and RATO (rotationary adjustment time off), we keep track of that internally. When a person uses comp time we deduct that from their comp time balances," she said. "After he used his vacation up, I exhausted his comp, RATO and personal and that's how an accurate calculation was given for what was still owed to him."

The News Journal received from the auditor's office Bosko's comp time records, which accounts for how and when he earned and spent the comp time.

Although Bosko has been one of the county's most prominent law enforcement officers, he was embroiled in controversy in 2013.

In June 2013, Bosko was the topic of a discussion between the U.S. Attorney's Office and county prosecutors. First Assistant Prosecutor Bambi Couch Page asked for a letter to document the meeting. The U.S. Attorney's Office said it no longer would take any cases from Bosko, saying he was "deliberately untruthful and evasive."

In December, prosecutors promised to take another look at the case of former Bellville police Officer Maurice King III.

King was convicted on seven counts, including four felonies, on charges of trying to buy reportedly stolen guns from two informants. He spent 22 months in prison. Bosko was the lead investigator in that case while he was a Mansfield police detective.

Bosko joined the sheriff's office in April 2008 after 22 years with the police department. He left the police department to become the crime lab director for Sheldon.

While with the city, Bosko was officer of the year in 1994 and 2005 and detective of the year in 2006 and 2007.